The Texas Supreme Court has ruled against lawmakers who used their subpoena power to stop the execution of a death row inmate over the death of his daughter, paving the way for its further execution.
Robert Roberson, 58, was scheduled to be questioned by the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee, which last month issued a legislative subpoena requiring him to testify about his case — triggering a wave of lawsuits that temporarily halted his Oct. 17 execution with just hours to spare. to go. save.
In other words, “categorically prioritizing a legislative subpoena over a scheduled execution would become a powerful legal tool that could be deployed not only to obtain necessary testimony but also to prevent an execution,” the Texas Supreme Court said Friday in his ruling.
Robert Roberson with his daughter Nikki.
But the Supreme Court justices went on to say that the commission can still attempt to interview Roberson “as long as a subpoena is issued in a manner that does not inevitably block a scheduled execution,” adding that “nothing in our possession prevents the commission from seeking judicial assistance in the ordinary way of compelling testimony.”
The House committee’s use of a subpoena to compel Roberson to testify in person was an unprecedented legal move. Some lawmakers noted it would help buy more time for Roberson, whose case has bipartisan support.
Committee Chairman Joe Moody, a Democrat, and committee member Jeff Leach, a Republican, responded that they did not expect their subpoena would necessarily stop Roberson’s execution for good, but said the Supreme Court ruling does not prevent them from still trying to collect his sentence. testimony.
“The Supreme Court has reinforced our belief that our committee can indeed obtain Mr. Roberson’s testimony and has made clear that it expects the executive branch of government to accommodate us in doing so,” Moody and Leach said in a statement.
Lawmakers had issued a subpoena for Roberson to testify in his case as it concerns a 2013 “junk science” law that allows Texas inmates to challenge convictions based on advances in forensic science .
But the attorney general’s office quickly appealed the subpoena, which was supported by a temporary injunction from a district court halting Roberson’s execution. After the state’s highest criminal court agreed with the attorney general’s office, allowing Roberson’s execution to proceed, lawmakers then took their case to the Texas Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court, which currently consists of nine Republican-elected justices, ultimately agreed to halt the execution, although it did not specify how long a separation of powers issue would continue to be litigated through the courts.
Lawmakers and Attorney General Ken Paxton also publicly debated the issue, accusing each other of “misrepresenting” Roberson’s case and releasing their own reports and rebuttals to claims.
Roberson, who is expected to become the first person in the US to be executed in a shaken baby case, has maintained his innocence over the 2002 death of his two-year-old daughter Nikki.
At the time, doctors and law enforcement quickly concluded that she had been killed as a result of a violent tremor episode, leading to his conviction at trial, but Roberson’s defense says new insight into so-called shaken baby syndrome shows that other medical conditions have a could play a role in the death of a child, as they believe it did with Nikki.
But the attorney general’s office said last month that state lawmakers “attempted to mislead the public by falsely claiming that Roberson was wrongly convicted based on ‘junk science’ related to ‘shaken baby syndrome’.”
Roberson’s defense team initially tried to have him transported from his prison north of Houston to the Texas capital, Austin, to be interviewed by the House of Representatives committee, but lawmakers instead wanted to gather his testimony from where he is imprisoned.
The attorney general’s office did not immediately comment on the state Supreme Court’s ruling, and it is unclear whether Roberson will be allowed to testify or when it will seek a new death sentence.
Gretchen Sween, Roberson’s attorney, said she is hopeful the state will work with lawmakers to have Roberson testify after all.
“The additional benefit to Mr. Roberson of delaying his execution will hopefully give those in power time to address a grave error and see what is clear to anyone who honestly considers the medical evidence: the death of his daughter Nikki was a tragedy and not a crime; Robert is innocent,” Sween said in a statement. “Given the overwhelming new evidence of innocence, we ask the state of Texas not to set a new execution date.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
